Showing results by narrator "Karen Bartke" in All Categories

Jack loves his childhood toy Dur Pig. DP has always been there for him, through good and bad. Until one Christmas Eve something terrible happens - DP is lost. But Christmas Eve is a night for miracles and lost causes, a night when all things can come to life...even toys. And Jack’s newest toy - the Christmas Pig (DP’s annoying replacement) - has a daring plan: Together they’ll embark on a magical journey to seek something lost and to save the best friend Jack has ever known....

A collection of radio readings of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction – plus two bonus programmes Over the years the BBC has broadcast readings of many of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels, novellas and short stories. This collection includes some of his most famous works alongside various...

When newly promoted DI Anna Vaughan is called to a case in remote Knapdale, on the Argyll coast, she welcomes the chance to escape her life in Glasgow - more specifically the mother-in-law from hell… Ellen McIver, Baldrishaig’s local busybody, has been found dead. Run over — repeatedly — by a tractor belonging to local farmer Glen Cameron. The most likely culprit is Old Wullie, Cameron’s elderly father, who, despite his dementia, still likes to drive the tractor about the lanes. But once at the crime scene Anna can tell something sinister is afoot…

'The exploration of family and identity is filled with vivid characters and an enthralling plot, making it absorbing and emotional' The People’s Friend? ? 'A lovely, heartwarming read about belonging' heat? ? A feel-good story about family, belonging and finding peace with the past from the...

Detective Lola Harris is turning over a new leaf. She’s determined to get into shape. Her new personal trainer is merciless when it comes to fitness. Thankfully, he’s also charming and exceptionally good-looking, which helps on a cold early morning run. But as they puff round a corner in peaceful Pollok Park, Lola glimpses something that shouldn’t be there: a high-end BMW. Doors gaping. And a man and a woman, roped together. Lola’s early morning run is now a crime scene.

Jane, Carly and Rose Savage are savage by name, savage by nature. Having lost their mum too young, and with a bedridden father too ill to work, the sisters learnt early to stand on their own two feet. The family's flat in the rough streets of Glasgow's Haghill is their fortress, but when Carly's ex-boyfriend Cole Alexander is released from prison, trouble soon comes knocking at their door. The Alexanders have beef with the Savages, so the girls call for back up in the shape of their uncle Eddie and his two gorgeous but dangerous sons, Harry and Dean.

In this sitcom, Harry Hill stars as the governor of Britain’s remotest prison. In Series 1, he has to contend with the prison inspectors, mysteriously malfunctioning CCTV cameras, escaping prisoners and even the prison being attacked by a pair of mating whales. In Series 2, he and the team pitch a new invention to Dragon’s Den, he tries to get his stomach around a food shortage and a self-destruct button is found in the prison.

Young, feisty, and beautiful, heads turn wherever Danica Campbell goes, even if she only has eyes for her fiancé, Ricky Fyfe. He might be 30 years older than her, but his job as a big-time club owner in Glasgow means he can afford to give Danica the life she deserves. Danica knows he has a history—after all, his adult daughter Teigan works at the club—and she knows that Teigan’s mum, Elle, disappeared decades ago. It doesn’t matter, because Danica knows that Ricky will do anything for her.

Control of Glasgow’s infamous Haghill estate has been fought over for decades. But thanks to an uneasy truce between notorious local families - the Alexanders, the Tallans, and the ruthless Savages - for now the streets are peaceful. For Carly Savage this means she can think the unthinkable, and contemplate a future with her family’s sworn enemy, Jack Alexander, ignoring warnings that he can’t be trusted. But when crime boss, Rod Tallan, takes a romantic interest in her too, Carly feels like a pawn in some very dangerous men’s game.

Detective Lola Harris is persuaded to take a much-needed break in the remote Scottish Highlands. She’s expecting peace and quiet. But Ardaig Castle, an exclusive wellness retreat for the rich and famous, has its own dark secrets. Lola soon discovers that someone is sending poison pen letters to the staff. They’re growing more malicious each week. The latest reads: Why have you employed a killer among your staff?

Carly Savage has lost the two people she loved the most – first her father and then Jack, local gangland boss and love of her life, was brutally attacked and died in Carly’s arms. Grief has changed her. Carly’s sisters Jane and Rose are worried she may never recover. But the need for revenge drives Carly now and she will stop at nothing to destroy her enemies, Cole Alexander and her cousin Dean. When the Savages’ boss, Queen of Glasgow Toni McVay’s reign comes under attack from Cole, Carly realises this is her chance.

Detective Lola Harris is called to a local park where the body of a woman has been pulled out of the river. On the victim’s wrist is a tattoo. A dolphin and a heart. Lola knows who she is instantly – the woman half the Glasgow force have been searching for: missing juror, Kathryn Main. Kathryn was on the jury that convicted reality TV star Carter Craig of a double murder. Just weeks later, the verdict was overturned. Carter walked free. Three jurors were arrested for misconduct. A fourth, Kathryn Main, disappeared. Then, a witness comes forward with shocking new information.

When the patriarch of the Savage family dies suddenly, his three daughters, Carly, Jane and Rose are heartbroken. But you can’t keep a Savage sister down for long, and Jane and her gang The Unbeatable Bitches, along with their uncle Eddie, and cousins Dean and Harry are determined to fight to keep the Savage family on top. But Carly isn’t so sure. Perhaps her father’s death is the opportunity she’s been waiting for – to finally get away from the life of crime and violence in Glasgow’s Haghill. Exhausted by the jockeying for power, she pictures a quiet place where no one knows who she is.

Detective Lola Harris is called to a murder scene on a cold October morning. The victim was seen just hours earlier, running through the darkness clutching a newborn. At 1am, a woman broke into Lawrence Dixon's home and kidnapped his ten-week-old son at gunpoint. Now Lola's chasing shadows through a maze of lies, secrets and stolen lives. And the truth is more twisted than Lola ever imagined.

Four full-cast dramatisations of classic Gothic novels, plus documentaries exploring the genre’s rise and enduring appeal Dark deeds, dastardly villains, innocent victims and supernatural happenings – these are the terrifying tropes that make up Gothic fiction, a genre that has captured our...

It’s 1964, and 22-year-old Trisha moves into a West Hampstead bedsitter to escape her controlling suburban parents and her boring fiancé, Keith. She’s determined to make it as a swinging, get-ahead girl-about-town, but finds herself struggling with homesickness, loneliness and the challenges of cooking a decent meal on a single gas ring. Then she rescues a grotty wardrobe from her landlady’s attic, and it yields a surprising treasure – a copy of Cooking in a Bedsitter, which becomes her bible.

Detective Lola Harris returns from a miserable solo holiday – an effort to get over her useless ex – only to find herself in charge of a high-stakes investigation. She rushes to a crime scene in the historic Gallowgate neighbourhood. The smell in the basement is thick and sweet, even through Lola’s forensic mask. The old wooden chair and the rope hanging from its arms are stained red. The earth below is saturated with blood. Six candleholders, their lights burned out, lend the scene an air of a completed ritual. And yet there is no sign of a body.

Detective Lola is heading back over the river from a rare night out when she spots a crowd of people looking over the parapet. Someone’s gone in. A young man called Cammy witnessed everything. He swears it’s the work of the Clyde Pusher, but is terrified of the police. The Clyde Pusher is the stuff of urban legend. A hooded figure who throws men into the river to drown. Eight victims in five years. But according to the police, the Pusher doesn’t exist. There are no reliable witnesses, nothing to link the victims.

When the body of 17-year-old Jackie Shaw is found in a shallow grave, it sends shockwaves through her small West Yorkshire community. Rumours of murder and systematic sexual abuse are rife, and the town's MP, Samuel Stokes, is adding fuel to the fire with his campaign against a so-called 'Asian grooming gang'. Probation officer Rachel Collier deals with paedophiles on a daily basis: so when she hears that her teenage daughter, Chloe, has become friendly with 24-year-old Tariq, she's concerned where it might lead. But that's not her only worry.

Cheryl Davidson was happy with husband Leo, watching her beloved son, Dean, grow into a handsome young man, dreaming of the paths his life would take. Until the day that Dean was murdered, his body dumped in an isolated scrapyard with a bullet in his head, and Cheryl's world exploded. Discovering that Dean had been mixed up in the Glasgow underworld, and worst of all, that Leo had brought him in, means that Cheryl's sanity is hanging by a thread. Overwhelmed by grief and with no one left to trust, Cheryl plans to take deadly retribution on the family that caused her son to be killed.